SpaceX Completes Its 112th, 113th & 114th Falcon Launches in a ~ 20-Hour Time Period Ahead of Tomorrow’s Planned 6th Starship Test Flight

(Cape Canaveral, Florida; Kennedy Space Center, Florida & Vandenberg, California) Between last night (Nov. 17th) and today – ahead of tomorrow’s (Nov. 19th) planned sixth Starship flight test – Elon Musk’s SpaceX completed three Falcon 9 missions, marking the company’s 112th, 113th and 114th launches of the year, within a ~ 20 hour time period.

Photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the company’s NSIL GSAT-N2 mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO_ from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1.31pm ET (1831 GMT) today courtesy of a post by SpaceX on X, @spacex.

Details related to each of the three respective launches are included below.

Trifecta Launch 3 of 3:

Today (Monday, Nov. 18th) at 1.31 pm ET (1831 GMT), SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched the NSIL GSAT-N2 mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) – which lies 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Planet Earth – from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, marking SpaceX’s first-ever mission for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

Today’s flight marked the 19th for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting the NSIL GSAT-N2 mission, which previously launched SES-22, ispace’s HAKUTO-R MISSION 1, Amazonas-6, CRS-27, Bandwagon-1, and 13 Starlink missions, according to a post on SpaceX’s website.

According to Space.com, the 10,360-pound (4,700 kg) GSAT-N2 satellite is a project of New Space India Limited, ISRO’s commercial arm; ISRO chose Falcon 9 given that no Indian rocket is capable of carrying such a heavy payload to a destination as distant as GTO, per India Today. The Indian space agency has generally flown its heavy satellites upon rockets operated by the European company Arianespace. Arianespace is a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus (EPA: AIR) and Safran (EPA: SAF).

Trifecta Launch 2 of 3:

On Sunday, November 17th at 9.53 pm PT / Monday, November 18th at 12.53am ET (0553 GMT), SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched 20 Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit (LEO) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the company’s Starlink mission yesterday (Nov. 17th) at 9.53pm PT / today (Nov. 18th) at 12.53am ET (0523 GMT), today courtesy of a post by SpaceX on X, @spacex.

The flight marked the 20th for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Transporter-8, Transporter-9, NROL-85, NROL-87, SWOT, SARah-1, NROL-146, and now 13 Starlink missions, according to a post by SpaceX.

The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth as planned about eight minutes after liftoff, landing on the SpaceX droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean, per Space.com. Falcon 9’s upper stage reached LEO and deployed the Starlink Satellites on schedule, about 62 minutes after liftoff, according to Space.com.

SpaceX’s megaconstellation currently consists of more than 6,600 active spacecraft – according to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, per Space.com – 283 of which are direct-to-cell capable.

Trifecta Launch 1 of 3:

Yesterday, on Sunday, November 17th at 5.28 pm ET (2228 GMT), a Falcon 9 rocket launched SpaceX’s TD7 mission to orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; per Spaceflight Now, while all regulatory filings and U.S. government agencies, including the U.S. Space Force and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), called TD7’s payload “Optus-X,” SpaceX referred to the mission as “TD7.”

Photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the company’s TD7 mission to orbit at 5.28pm (2228 GMT) yesterday (Nov. 17th) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida courtesy of a post by SpaceX on X, @spacex.

In addition to its original name being changed, zero specifics have been released about the mission, according to SpaceFlight Now, although a SpaceX commentator noted that the payload was a communications satellite during SpaceX’s livestream about the mission.

As explained by SpaceFlight Now, with respect to the TD7 mission and “Optus-X”: “Filings with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) state that Optus is a subsidiary of Singtel Optus Pty. Ltd., which in turn is a subsidiary of Singapore Telecom Australia Investments Pty. Ltd., which is in turn is a subsidiary of SingTel Australia Investment Ltd., a British Virgin Islands investment holding company.”

The TD7 launch marked the 16th flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-5, GPS III Space Vehicle 06, Inmarsat I6-F2, CRS-28, NG-20, and nine Starlink missions, according to a post on SpaceX’s website.